Oswestry Olympians	Juniors Club History 1
	Oswestry Olympians Juniors
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	1990's - Arnie's Beginnings
	History - Page4 - Page3 - Page2 - Page1
	History snippets from the 1990s (as dimly recalled by Arnie and Kathy Wray).

 
In the early 90s, when the Wrays arrived in Oswestry, our son Simon was taken along to the track. The general perception was of a struggling running club which had a number of middle distance coaches, some sprints but no field events. When the children went to competitions they just had a go at field events for fun!
Within a year the picture began to emerge of coaches who were all pretty discouraged and anxious to hand over to "new blood", and declining numbers of club members. Arnie and another parent, Andy Knott, agreed to take a coaching course to support the coaches. Unfortunately, as soon as we qualified, almost all the other coaches resigned leaving Andy and Arnie, (Assistant Club Coaches!), in total control. The only other coach who remained involved was Mike Hancock who was based in Cheshire and turned up once a week with a minibus full of kids!
This was something of a shock to the system, but as there were only about 20 children it wasn't as bad as it might seem although the age range was very wide. Most of the older athletes left at about this time too, (no decent coaching!!), so we realistically were starting up with a new young group, most of whom were under 13. They all trained at the same time, twice a week on the track in Summer and once in Winter when Mike would take a road running group and Andy and Arnie looked after the others in the Marches Sports Hall.
Andy took on Sprints coaching in the Summer, generally with older kids, and Arnie looked after the younger groups. We soon extended the Winter training to two nights for older children, introducing Circuit training on Tuesdays, and in a few years had to split the Thursday sessions into two age groups as the club expanded. Other coaches came and went during this time, and some stayed, Kathy Wray, Ellen Harrison and Sarah Greaves. Andy qualified as a Level 2 Sprints coach and Arnie virtually took a new qualification every year although primarily focusing his efforts in High Jump.
In 1993 children's P.B.s were recorded for the first time and 5-star awards were presented at the awards evening, and some years later Club records were first established based on the P.B.records since 1993.
A breakthrough came when two boys from the club got selected to compete in the English Schools track and field finals, (not surprisingly, a sprinter and a high jumper!), although children from Oswestry had been representing Shropshire in cross-country for some years.
By the mid 90s the club had begun its unbroken run of Sports hall victories and was starting to pick up trophies in cross-country leagues. Andy decided that, with the addition of new coaches to the "staff", he could retire to take a more specialized sprints group who still travel to Wrexham and Telford to train. Sarah also qualified as a level 2 throws coach.
In the late 90s the club has gone from strength to strength with the addition of three more coaches, Kathy Smith, John Roberts and Paula Pugh, and the opportunity for a wider range of athletics training. Our most recent addition, John, brings with him experience as a Senior middle-distance coach in Southend and fills a gap left when Mike Hancock stopped traveling to Oswestry a few years earlier.
We have also recently benefited from parents who have taken on team managing roles and a host of other admin. responsibilities which were previously carried by a small group.